


Here on Out

by imaginarycircus



Series: Text and Subtext [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-26
Updated: 2011-06-26
Packaged: 2017-10-20 17:52:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarycircus/pseuds/imaginarycircus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Danny meet "in canon" after a one-night stand. This is a continuation of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/209484">One Night Only</a> and picks up immediately after that story leaves off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Here on Out

**Author's Note:**

> Very grateful to stellarmeadow and sunhawk who beta'd this superbly for me.
> 
> NB: This story contains chunks of dialog directly from the pilot episode and credit for that goes to the actors and writers and not to me. I don't normally use much dialog directly from the show, but I wanted to weave a story through canon and so borrowed heavily. Hopefully what I've done is actually transformative in some way.

Danny is tired. He only got three hours sleep since he left the hotel and he’s really too old for this shit. He enters the garage at the McGarrett residence with his weapon drawn, because he can hear someone moving about. It’s a crime scene. No one should be there. His heart is pounding, like he’s some kind of rookie. He takes a deep breath and rounds the bulk of the car and levels his gun at the back of a tall man standing at the workbench.

“You!” he spits out when he recognizes Steve. What the hell is he doing at Danny’s crime scene? Did Steve play him in some kind of bid to get information? Danny shouts, “Hands up. Don’t move.”

“Who are you?” Danny says and Steve echoes him.

“I am Detective Danny Williams.”

“I’m Lieutenant Commander Steven J. McGarrett. This is my father’s house--”

Well, fuck. “Put your weapon down right now—”

“No, you put your weapon down!” Steve takes a step forward and barks, “Show me your ID.”

“You show me your ID. Right now,” Danny barks right back.

“I’m not putting my gun down,” Steve says.

“Well, neither am I.”

“Use your free hand. Take out your ID,” Steve says.

“Please, after you.” Danny can’t believe his bad luck. He finally gets up the courage to have a one-night stand and it’s with the son of a victim, on his own case.

“At the same time?” Steve says.

Danny repeats him and what are they? In sixth grade? “What? Like on the count of three?”

“Sure. OK. Three is good.”

“One. Two.” He’s not going to say three. It’s too stupid. Danny takes out his badge and Steve mirrors him. Shit, Danny thinks. What the fuck was McGarrett doing picking him up last night right after his father’s funeral? Except, yeah, Danny gets that. Sex is life affirming. He’s not going to judge the guy for that.

They lower their weapons.

Steve, whom he never expected to see again, is right in front of him and Danny has to set aside what they did last night, and how he wants to stride forward and kiss Steve, because he has a job to do. “Look, I’m really sorry about your father, but you can’t be here right now. This is an active crime scene.”

“It doesn’t seem that active.”

Steve is so calm on the surface, but Danny can see he’s as taut as a bowstring.

“I can’t share any information with you,” Danny says.

“Hesse wasn’t here alone when my father was murdered. Someone was sitting at the desk in the study. There was a space clear for a 13” laptop and my father hated computers.”

Something in the way Steve is staring at him intently twists up Danny’s gut, but if Steve isn’t going to mention last night? Danny certainly won’t. Can’t. Is afraid of what he might say. His heart is pounding away and Danny thinks it probably has very little to do with having recently had a gun pointed at him.

“I’m not going to ask you again. You’ve got to leave.” Danny is barely keeping a lid on himself. He wants to punch Steve now as much as he wants to kiss him.

“You got it.” Steve seems disappointed in Danny and grabs a red toolbox and heads for the door. He doesn’t even look at Danny as he passes him.

“And you can leave the box. That’s evidence. You know that.” Danny feels like he’s talking to Grace.

“I came with this,” Steve says and smirks.

“No, you didn’t. You didn’t come with it. I can see the dust void it left right here on the counter.” Danny jabs a finger at the counter and turns back to Steve. “What’s in the box? What are you hiding?”

“How long you been with the Honolulu PD?” Steve juts his chin out so that it’s patently clear he is looking down his nose at Danny. And Danny definitely wants to punch him.

“None of your business. What are you? Barbara Walters?”

“No, it is my business if you’re investigating my father’s death.” Does he want a pissing contest?

“I am and I’d like to get back to that. So the sooner you leave the sooner I can.” Danny is trying hard to be professional here.

“Anything you say,” Steve grinds out and still tries to carry off the box.

“Leave the box,” Danny says. “Or get arrested.”

“You gonna call for backup?” Steve says. Yeah, he wants a pissing contest.

“An ambulance,” Danny mutters.

Steve nods once to show he knows Danny is all bluster, but that he appreciates the effort. Then he sets the box on the trunk of the Marquis.

“Thank you,” Danny says.

“Don’t thank me yet.” He takes out his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Governor Jameson, please. Tell her it’s Steve McGarrett.”

“Oh, please,” Danny says. His eyes are itchy, he hasn’t eaten lunch yet, and he really doesn’t have time for this shit.

But, sure enough, Jameson is on the line.

“Governor, I’ll take the job… let’s just say I found something that changed my mind.”  
Steve looks at Danny, all heat, and then looks quickly away. Danny swallows hard.

“I don’t know. Immediately,” Steve says into the phone. “I’ll transfer to the reserves and I’ll run your task force.”

Danny can hear that the governor is talking, but can’t make out what she’s saying. Task force? What’s going on? His skin is gooseflesh all over.

“What? Right now? OK.” Steve turns his back on Danny and takes the goddamned oath. “I, Steven J. McGarrett, do solemnly swear upon my honor and conscience that I will act at all times to the best of my ability and knowledge in a manner befitting an officer of the law. Thank you, Governor.”

Steve turns in one fluid motion and says, “Now, it’s my crime scene.” The ‘fuck you’ is unspoken.

He leaves Danny alone in the garage. Danny calls his captain, who eventually confirms that there is really a new task force and McGarrrett is taking over. It’s late and it’s about to storm so Danny heads home. He wants a beer, but he’s out and he doesn’t want to stop in the rain. He sits in his miserable apartment and decides he has never hated Hawaii more.

Fucking McGarrett. Danny has never been so irritated, and also so attracted, to anyone in his life. The man waltzed into his life and completely fucked it up. What was supposed to be a cheap thrill is now something Danny can’t get out of his head, can’t stop feeling in his bones. The way Steve looked when he came is now mashed up in his memories with Steve saying, “Now, it’s my crime scene.”

Not to mention that McGarrett has seen him naked, has seen him come, has even taken a shower with him. But apparently they are going to pretend that didn’t happen.

There’s a knock at the door, probably one of the neighbors. Danny opens it without checking to see who is there. Shit. It’s Steve. He’s soaked and Danny ignores the urge to strip him naked, but can’t help looking him up and down. Steve doesn’t miss it.

“I swung by your precinct and talked to your captain. He said you requested a wire be put on someone named Doran. Fred Doran. Tell me about him.” Steve just walks right in.

“Come in,” Danny says. This guy could so easily take over everything in his life and Danny is not about to let that happen without a fight.

Steve asks about a photo of Grace, and Danny is ready with a smart answer, but he still feels like he is running on autopilot whenever he spits words at Steve.

“You don’t actually let her stay here with you, do you?” Steve says, looking around at the shit hole Danny calls home.

“What are you? Nanny 9-1-1?”

Steve flips opens the case file and says, “So what do you know about this guy? Doran” Steve holds up Doran’s charming mug shot.

“Surely, you don’t need my help.” Danny is not going to bend over. He didn’t last night. Why would he now?

“Enlighten me,” Steve says. And there is a flicker of something on Steve’s face. Danny thinks about how Steve just lost his only living parent and how much that must suck. The guy is not quite thirty-five and he has no one. His sister lives in LA and they aren’t close according to the case file. Danny has to fight down the urge to pull Steve into a hug, which would probably earn him a black eye.

Danny explains that Hesse probably got his gun from Doran and about the ballistics match. Steve listens intently, but his eyes flick to Danny’s mouth more than is really necessary.

“Well, maybe Doran knows where he is. So.” Steve nods his head toward the rainstorm. “Let’s go talk to him.”

“Whoa-whoa-whoa. Excuse me. Are you suffering from dementia? This is no longer my case.”

“Your captain said you transferred in from New Jersey six months ago, so your eyes are still fresh…” Steve is actually trying to butter him up? Seriously?

Danny quips about his psych eval not being for another six weeks and is grateful that Steve isn’t using his body to convince Danny and maybe that’s why he hasn’t mentioned what happened last night, because he knows Danny’s got a thing for him. Shit.

Steve responds, “Fold-out bed. No ring on your finger. You obviously moved here to be close to your daughter, which means in between visits all you’ve got is your job and you take pride in it. That’s what I’m looking for.”

Steve is looking for vengeance and is so turned around by grief, he’d do anything and Danny doesn’t want to get sucked into that maelstrom, but he doesn’t quite know how to say, “No, I don’t want to do my job.”

So he says, “Yeah, but you know what? It’s guys like you—they think they know how to do everything better and that only makes my job harder.” Which is true.

“You’ve got no choice detective. The Governor gave me jurisdiction. I’m making you my partner. We’re going to get along great.”

Danny scrubs his hand over his face. He’s going cross-eyed from trying to read between the lines. He’s confused about what Steve might be saying and what he’s not saying. It’s hard to have subtext, when you don’t have text.

The more he thinks about it the more Danny really feels bad for Steve. He’s obviously, almost manically capable on the outside, but a total shut down mess on the inside. He doesn’t need therapy so much as he needs to be totally gutted and rebuilt and while Danny is not afraid of a little heavy lifting, this would be like trying to rebuild the Hoover dam with thumb tacks and chewing gum.

They drive in silence and it is so very, very weird to be sitting inches from Steve, pretending that he did not have his tongue in Steve’s ass fewer than twelve hours ago. Just for a little variety in suffering, Rachel calls, but Danny ignores the call.

“I take it your marriage didn’t end too well.” Steve sounds inordinately pleased about that.

Danny is not ashamed so he says, “No. It would have, had my ex not remarried and dragged my daughter to this pineapple infested hell hole.”

“You don’t like the beach?”

“I don’t like the beach.”

“Who doesn’t like the beach?”

“I like cities. You know. Skyscrapers. No tsunamis. No jelly fish.”

“Tell me you can swim,” Steve says, his disdain more than palpable.

“Can I swim?” Danny is stunned.

“You don’t know how to swim.” Steve shakes his head.

“I swim. I swim for survival not for fun.”

“All right,” Steve says making it clear he totally believes Danny 100%. Right.

The psycho ring tone starts up again and Danny answers the phone. “Yes, dear… hey, Monkey!

“Hi, Daddy. Why are you calling me ‘dear’?” Grace giggles.

“No, no, I thought you were your mom.”

“Mr. Hoppy was the coolest at show and tell. Everyone wanted to pet him.”

“I am so glad that everyone liked Mr. Hoppy.”

“I can’t wait for Friday, Danno,” Grace says. And the absolute hope and love in her voice almost breaks Danny, cracks him around the edges.

“I’m excited too, baby. We’re going to have so much fun this weekend. Hey, Danno loves you.” He hangs up.

“Who’s Danno?” Steve says.

“Don’t.”

“Hmm?” Steve says looking out the window like he doesn’t really care, which of course he doesn’t. He only cares about his father’s case. This getting to know you bullshit is just another ploy.

“Just don’t.”

“OK,” Steve says.

“Thank you,” Danny says and means it.

“Yeah.” Steve’s voice is strangely thick and what is that about? Danny is utterly spent, Steve is draining all his reserves, and he has no idea what the hell he and Grace are going to do over the weekend. He can’t compete with Stan and all his goddamn money.

Danny pulls into the trailer park where Doran lives and Steve jumps out of the car without a word.

“Hey, hey. This guy Doran is the shooter. We shouldn’t be doing this without backup.”

“You are the backup.” Steve means it. He is not making a joke.

“I’m the backup. I hate him. I hate him so much.” Part of Danny means it, but there is that other part, which he is ignoring right now that doesn’t hate Steve at all, that remembers what Steve tastes like.

“Hey, slow down.” Danny runs to catch up. They hear crashing from inside the house and Steve holds up his hand, like Danny might actually run past him and into the trailer. He checks his weapon and takes off the safety and waves Danny forward. Danny runs past the door just in time for a woman to exit. He puts his hand over her mouth, but she struggles and bites him. Danny lets go of her and she screams, “Cops!”

Next thing he knows Danny is being blown out the window and onto the roof of a car.

“Danny?” Steve calls after him.

“Go, go go!” Danny’s been hit, but he can tell it’s not bad.

Danny slowly gets up and checks his arm. It’s only a graze. He circles around the opposite way that Steve chased Doran. The glimpses of the chase that Danny catches are like something out of a movie. Steve jumps over moving cars, and tears through an open-air market. He tries to talk Doran down when the guy takes a hostage, but Danny fires when Doran aims his gun at Steve.

A paramedic patches Danny up, while Steve pokes around in Doran’s trailer. Danny is lucky it’s a minor nick on his bicep, but it smarts and he really could have done without it. Steve is going to get him killed if he always operates like this and then Danny won’t have to worry about having nothing planned for Grace.

Steve finds some poor Chinese girl locked in Doran’s closet. He comes out and starts telling Danny what he learned from her, when Danny can’t help but bust out, “OK, excuse me. I’m sorry. This is typically the point where you would uh, say thank you for saving your life.”

“You just shot my only lead.” Steve is livid, but containing it.

Oh, fuck no.

“Are you kidding me?” Danny says and repeats it when Steve starts muttering to himself about how the same guys could have moved Hesse into Hawaii.

“You just took a stupid risk. OK? Understand that. I am not getting myself killed for your vendetta. I have a daughter. OK?” Danny is spitting, spraying his syllables.

“Yeah, that girl there is someone’s daughter too,” Steve says. And is he actually trying to shame Danny?

“You just don’t get it,” Danny says. Then he cracks, because Steve is too much. “For someone who just lost his father you’re pretty dense.”

“What did you just say to me?” Steve hulks over Danny. He gets in Danny’s face and barks, “What did you just say to me? What if she was yours, huh? Is there anything you wouldn’t do to hunt down the son of a bitch that did this to her and kill him?”

“Do not question my resolve.” Danny jabs his finger in Steve’s chest. “Do you understand me?

“One warning. Take your finger out of my face…”

“Listen to me you son of a bitch—“

And then Steve has him down on his knees and his shoulder is never going to be the same. It’s everything and nothing like last night in the hotel room, but Danny knows now—Steve is always in control. He is fucked in every possible way.

“What did I tell you? I warned you,” Steve says and his voice is even, and slightly silky; Danny has heard that tone before and it makes him shiver.

“What are you? A ninja? Let go.”

“In front of all these nice people—“ Steve addresses the HPD officers who are moving towards them. “It’s fine. Go back to work. It’s fine.”

“Now, you don’t have to like me,” Steve continues, “but right now there is no one else to do this job.”

“OK, let me go,” Steve is really killing his arm. Steve lets him up.

“All right we need to find these human traffickers—“ and then Danny whales on him, lands a punch right on Steve’s jaw.

“You’re right. I don’t like you,” Danny says and walks away thinking, Asshole.

They get in the car and don’t speak for several minutes until Steve says, “How’s the arm?”

“Let’s just not talk.”

“Right now? Or ever again?” Steve is trying to lighten the mood. Fuck him. And that’s part of the problem right there. Danny wants to. Right now. Over the hood of the car.

“Just, both. OK?”

“You know, I think I might know why your wife left you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you’re very sensitive.”

“I’m sensitive.” Danny can’t help the strangled laugh. “You think I’m sensitive?”

“Yeah, a little bit.”

“When did you come to this stunning conclusion that I was sensitive, huh? Was it when a bullet was tearing through my flesh? Is that when I seemed sensitive to you? Huh? I am really happy that you are not afraid of anything. OK? I am glad that you have that GI Joe thousand yard stare from chasing shoe bombers around the world, OK. But in civilized society we have rules. All right, it’s the unspoken glue that separates us from jackals and hyenas—

“Jackals and hyenas?”

“Yeah, Animal Planet. Whatever. The point is. Rule number one, if you get someone shot YOU APOLOGIZE—“

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t wait for a special occasion—“ You don’t pretend you’ve never seen me before—

“I’m sorry.”

“—like birthdays, freakin President’s day—“ You don’t pretend we didn’t get off together—

“I said I’m sorry. I’m sincerely sorry. That’s what I was trying to tell you last year when this conversation first started.”

“Your apology is noted and acceptance is pending.” Danny doesn’t bother to state the rule number two is that if you fuck someone you don’t pretend it didn’t happen the next day even if it’s awkward, but he’s not going there today.

“You let me know now,” Steve says.

“Yeah, I’ll let you know.”

“Make the next left up here,” Steve says. “I think I know someone who can help us.”

Danny will never be certain how he and Steve end up standing outside the shave ice stand in giant t-shirts holding candy colored shave ice cones, but Kamekona will only talk to Chin and not Steve and Danny, and not unless Steve and Danny model his products.

A little girl comes up and asks Steve if he’s a cop and Danny has to bite back a laugh at how wooden Steve is with the kid. At least GI Joe is bad at something.

Danny retrieves the huge stuffed bunny that he’d hidden from Grace that morning, once he’d realized it couldn’t compete with Mr. Hoppy, and the little girl’s face lights up and she skips off. Steve just stares at him like he’s preformed a feat of magic. Danny grins up at him. Steve’s mask slips and Danny can see Steve from last night underneath, naked and vulnerable, but for only a moment.

Then they do that thing where they stare into each other’s eyes for too long and Danny has so many questions that his questions have questions and it’s a big never ending loop of lust and no damn answers.

Chin interrupts their Vulcan mind meld, or whatever, thank goodness, and takes them to meet his cousin. Danny is already so far off his game that he can be forgiven for shaking Kono’s hand a little too long. I mean she just laid that dude out and she’s so pretty, and also wet, and Steve has had him half hard all damn day.

Chin looks at Danny like he’s mentally deficient. It’s all Steve’s fault. Steve, who is standing there in his stupid aviator sunglasses, looking like he has everything under control.

They don’t have an office yet, so they work out of Steve’s place and it’s eerie. Danny is happy when they go outside to have a beer. He almost says, “So we’re going to just pretend it never happened?” But he doesn’t. Probably better to wait for Steve to bring it up. The man is fucking dangerous.

They’re out on the lanai’i when Steve changes into a fresh shirt in front of Danny, like it’s nothing. But he could have done it inside. He did it front of Danny on purpose. Danny doesn’t know why, what it means. It could mean: “remember this?” or “not getting this again” or “do you want it?” Of course, it could also mean that Steve wanted to put on a clean shirt.

He won’t tell Danny what’s in the tool box, but there is an implied ‘yet’ in there somewhere, a promise that he might tell him later. And then Steve says, “You’re a good father.”

Is he deflecting, or is he complimenting Danny? It’s going to be very hard to tell what’s sincere and what’s a ploy, because they’re probably the same thing to Steve. He uses everything he has—he’s been taught to, drilled into efficiency.

And Danny can barely look at Steve. So much that’s unsaid seems loaded into the compliment, or maybe Danny just hopes that there is. He itches for Steve to think well of him, and that’s another complication he doesn’t need, but he doesn’t have very many people on his side at the moment. He could use someone like Steve, someone unfailingly loyal, and his hindbrain adds, fucking gorgeous and great in bed.

And there it is again, that intense scrutiny, like Steve is trying to stare through Danny’s face and into his skull. And for all Danny knows, maybe Steve can. He mutters something about fathering and ends it by saying, “… if that means I have to put up with you and your twisted belief that you are never wrong? So be it.”

They clink bottles and a strange fond look creeps into Steve’s features and Danny has no idea what to make of it. So he doesn’t let himself think about it. Maybe Steve just really likes beer. Except he smiles a knowing little smile at Danny and Danny smiles right back. And yeah they aren’t talking about the fucking, but they both remember it. Not awkward at all. Danny doesn’t keep things under wraps unless he absolutely has to, so this not talking is uncomfortable. But the silence goes on until it becomes untenable and Danny forces himself to go home before he blurts out something stupid.

On the drive home he turns on the stereo and cranks Bon Jovi, sings along to “You Give Love a Bad Name,” and wonders how Steve can sleep in a house full of ghosts. They haven’t even had CSU come clean the place up yet. Danny turns down the music and calls and leaves a request for them to come out tomorrow. No one should have to sleep in a house spattered with his father’s brain matter.

*

Kono seems thrilled to go undercover and she isn’t even a cop yet. She plays her part well, but some creep at HPD is a mole and tips Sang Min off that Kono is a cop. That’s when things go to shit, but Kono holds her own and Steve drives a goddamn truck into the warehouse. In minutes they’ve got everyone in cuffs, including Sang Min.

Steve goes after Sang Min in the interrogation room and has the guy practically crying after Danny couldn’t get more than a sassy comeback. He’d never do things Steve’s way, but he can’t help but admire the results. Fuck. He can’t help but admire Steve.

Until Steve drives a black and white onto a Chinese freighter and it turns into a huge gun battle. Then Danny doesn’t so much admire Steve as want to rush him to a mental health specialist, preferably one armed with tranquilizers.

Somehow they don’t die. Steve looks like crap, but also kind of hot in that movie hero covered in dirt and blood kind of way, when he looks down from the top of the storage container and says, “Book ‘em Danno.”

It’s that overly fond look and Steve shouldn’t get to call him Danno while pretending they haven’t seen each other naked. He shouldn’t get to have it both ways.

“What did I tell you about that?” Danny says.

*

Later they are moving into their new offices, when Steve shows up with his arm in a sling and steri strips on his cuts. Hesse went to town on him.

“Hey,” Steve holds something up like it’s the answer Danny’s been waiting for. He sets it on Danny’s desk and starts to walk away quickly like he’s embarrassed. It’s a piece of plastic like a credit card and for just a second Danny wonders if it’s a room key and if Steve is asking him to…

“What is it?” Danny says, needing Steve to stay.

Steve turns back and he looks belligerent. “Three nights at the Kahala Hotel. Look, I know you’re going to say no…”

“Damn right, I’m going to say no. What is it with you and my living arrangements?” Danny also doesn’t know what kind of strings come attached to this offer, but that pulls him up short. He’s pathetic. He wants there to be strings. He wants Steve to fucking care about what happened.

Steve goes on to explain about swimming with dolphins and it’s for Grace and Danny melts a little, because he needs a fucking bright spot, even if that bright spot is not going to be Steve.

“Hey, you look… pretty bad. But thank you.” And Danny hopes that Steve understands that they are not OK. They have to talk about what happened at some point. And Danny sees the offer for what it is. A political move, a formal apology for taking over his life, and maybe, just maybe an apology for pretending that they haven’t seen each other naked.

“You’re welcome,” Steve says. And again there is so much more to his words. It’s going to take Danny a great deal of patience to peel back the layers of the onion without crying, or hell, maybe it will make him cry. He has a feeling that either way Steve is worth it.

He watches him walk stiffly away and Danny would love to know what goes on behind that face, behind those mesmerizing blue eyes. He can’t remember the last time he was so fascinated by someone that he analyzed every twitch of his fingers and quirk of his lips.

 

*

They’ve been working together a couple of months and Danny has given up on Steve ever acknowledging what happened between them the night before they met, as Danny thinks of it. Because the man Danny went to that hotel room with is not Steve McGarrett, his boss. That was a sailor on leave, someone he can’t stop thinking about when things are quiet, which, thankfully, they seldom are. In that way Steve is a mixed blessing because he distracts Danny from remembering the beautiful way he came apart that night in the hotel, but he is also a constant reminder of it.

Danny argues with Steve, disagrees, and pushes back at every turn. It’s the only way he can hold his ground and keep from disappearing into Steve all together. Steve is used to being obeyed without question and that might fly in the SEALs, but it’s dangerous in the real world, it’s dangerous to let someone dominate you so completely, Danny thinks. It would be like becoming a child again and Steve needs Danny to be an adult, as much as Danny needs that himself.

They’re getting along fine; the team is solid. They do good work and they’ve settled into a routine, until Meka dies and everything falls apart. Steve doesn’t trust Danny, can’t take his word for something as important as this. Meka was a good cop. Danny knows it and would pull out his eyeteeth to make Steve see the truth. Instead Danny storms off leaving Steve looking hurt and really he has some nerve.

Steve’s lack of trust is a barb in Danny’s heart, hurts more than he wants to admit. Chin finds him and talks him down, has his back. Thank goodness for Chin Ho Kelly.

Once Danny is feeling calmer--the pain proves useful, makes the last vestiges of hope melt away. Danny lets go of that night in the hotel room, lets go of any and all hope for a repeat performance.

Steve, Chin, and Kono help him uncover the mole in HPD and clear Meka’s name. He and Steve are back to witty banter and argue/flirting in the car, but Danny knows it doesn’t mean anything.

Until Steve shows up at Meka’s house in his uniform, looks Danny in the eye, and says, “No, but I know you.”

Danny can barely swallow around the lump in his throat. ‘I know you.’ There is enough subtext in those three words to write a novel the size of “Anna Karenina,” well, maybe “War and Peace,” because this is Steve, after all.

They’re going to talk later. No more of this cryptic bullshit. Danny is going to kiss Steve and he’s pretty sure Steve is going to kiss him right back. Danny feels light inside for the first time since he heard about Meka, but he doesn’t let himself think too far ahead, because this isn’t the time or the place.

Danny leads Steve over to introduce him to Amy. He feels a little thrill when he says, “This is my partner, Steve.” Danny lets his fingers linger a little long on Steve’s elbow, on the scratchy wool of his jacket and Steve leans into him instead of pulling away.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments make my day, but concrit is always welcome, either here in the comments, or at circus at gmail.


End file.
